Podclass 10: Plateau Phase Action Items

Podclass Show Notes and Links

Summary:

Episode 10 digs deep in the most important action items for the third phase of the cycle, the Plateau phase. After an action-packed Rise phase, it’s the perfect way to transition to the post-ovulation rhythm of the female body AND keep moving the needle forward on your goals for the cycle.

The action steps we love for the Plateau phase are all focused on comprehensive support of the detoxification organs of the body, which are the liver, lymphatics, skin, gut, and kidneys. Each of these organ systems have to be functioning properly for us to avoid hormonal imbalances like estrogen dominance and progesterone deficiency.

Zestyginger.com/cycleto get our FREE Wild Feminine Cycle Guide to get started with everything you need to know about living in sync with your cycles.

Zestyginger.com/healthyhormones to join our 3 month Healthy Hormones Group Program. This program includes functional lab work with a complete hormone and neurotransmitter panel, with a personalized protocol created for each participant based on their results.

Transcript for This Podcast

Hi there. This is Alex again. Thank you so much for joining me. It’s been so much fun getting to talk to you and talk about this stuff. Megan and I are huge nerds about everything, which is why we spend so much time reading about this, learning about this, and then taking all of that and giving it to you. So hopefully you’re finding this helpful.

But, we are going to just keep on going with our Plateau Phase action steps. So we are going to talk about food, exercise rituals, and some mental journaling things. And that way we are trying to get at everything in our life that kind of syncs up with our cycle, which is the whole point, right? And then we are living in such a way that we are honoring our body and the ebbs and flows that it has so that our body rewards us with feeling amazing and having the experiences in our life that we want to have. Which, that’s a whole other topic on the point of having good health, right? Which we sometimes end up missing by being so preoccupied with, “oh I can’t eat this.” “Oh I can’t do this.” “Oh I’m always sick.” “Oh I’m always…” Sometimes we miss the forest for the trees in terms of why we’re going for feeling good. Because that looks really different than, “oh I can’t stick with the diet.” But, you know, that’s the who point of this class. So I can’t get into all of that right now.

Although, definitely join us over if you follow us on Instagram, @zesty_ginger, then we talk about this stuff all the time. I just want to keep these podclasses very streamlined. But I also want you to understand just how much of a benefit and how powerful this can be when you actually start implementing it in all the other areas of your life that you’ll see. You’ll like, “whoa, this is so much easier than trying to fight against everything all the time. It’s just miserable.” You know? And so we are going to address all that today.

So Plateau Phase, that’s number three, it’s the Rise Phase just ended after you ovulated. And now we are kicking off the Plateau Phase.

This is when after ovulation we are, our hormones, are more or less staying stable. Now they do rise throughout this phase, and then kind of come back down during the next phase, and then ultimately down all the way so we can restart the cycle. But for the most part, it’s a very steady sort of time. And so because of that, like we talked physiologically you are very set up to maintain and keep going with these new things that you are implementing. So if last phase you either are doing an elimination diet or you started a new exercise regimen, or you started a new, even, hobby or a new journaling exercise, or a new anything, your like new job. This phase is when you are thinking through with maintenance, and with adding with what you are doing. So it’s the methodical putting one foot in front of the other and making small steps towards the direction you want to go. Ok?

So this is not doing everything at once. What you’re doing is last phase you had great energy levels, great motivation, and you did some of that hardest work to get started. Whatever it is, you finally got going. And the momentum has happened. This Plateau Phase you’re really going to ride that momentum out and begin to establish these things as not just a flash in the pan for you, but as a change you are consciously making that will keep going and that will have staying power. And this is why when you do dieting, especially, or – dieting is the number one thing that we see, but I think it also accounts of moving and exercise and all of that – is that when you do this this way, that you take advantage of what your body is already trying to accomplish. Then you’ll see your diets are going to be, or your diet – you are going to do just the one and it’s going to be successful and you’re going to eventually eat that way. That quote on quote “diet” or that new way of eating is going to be so much more successful when you do it this way where you actually have a phase where you say, “ok, I got started. I already am in the thick of it.” And now this is the phase to persevere and make little tiny adjustments so that I can stay on this path that I want to be on.

Let’s kick it off with the food stuff. With this if you are doing the, doing an elimination diet, which we always recommend at least one of the cycles. If you haven’t done an elimination diet we highly recommend this. What we have our ladies do in the 4 Phase Cycle Detox that we run, the Plateau Phase is actually going to be the phase where you start reintroducing some foods. And you can do this in any way as long as you stay methodical. Now in our 4 Phase Cycle Detox we actually just create this schedule, but you have to understand that an elimination diet at it’s very most fundamental basic level is taking away foods that are know common allergens, letting your immune system simmer down so that you are not actively inflamed, and then rechallenging with those food and seeing how you respond. And a lot of times people will have multiple things that they have.

So you want to start in a very methodical way here reintroducing foods back in. And a lot of times you can start with the foods you missed the most, or that you incorporate the most in your life. Just be aware, so if that’s like eggs every morning, or milk in your cereal, or gluten and you replaced everything with just the same foods but the gluten free version of it. Whatever it is that you did, if it’s something you eat all the time, sometimes those foods can become the things that we are momentarily sensitive to. That may be two months or eight years. But for the most part if people are doing the right things to heal, then you will be able to eat those foods again. So just, a lot of times people want to reintroduce those foods that they eat a lot, that’s great, but make sure you’re not being biased about it just because you want your eggs back in the morning. Like you might just, for a while, have to figure out a new breakfast strategy.

And so don’t hold yourself back. Cause sometimes people are very resistant to getting rid of something. And we’ve seen so many times that people are like, “but I always have my morning eggs. That can’t possibly be it.” And then they take the food away and that acne that they’ve been struggling with for 15 years finally goes away. And it’s not always just that one thing. But sometimes it is. So challenge yourself to be a little bit choosy when you go about doing this. Because you want to give it a real scientific sort of effort where you really take foods out and then you’re essentially giving your body a challenge of them. So you eat them.

If you are doing an elimination diet, the Plateau Phase is really where you get kicked off for the reintroduction phase. If you are doing any other diet, this is, the Plateau Phase, is the phase where you are going to maintain as much as possible while still allowing for corrections. If you have been following a certain diet, and you even feel great on it, but you’re noticing that you get really hungry or angry in the afternoon when you have, well that is the time to readdress and re approach that specific time problem. That time of the day, what can you have – protein, carbs, fats – to supply you with the energy that you need. Or whatever it is. Maybe you realize that last week you cooked for the week but you had only two different types of meals for the week and you quite frankly just go sick of that food. For my husband and I when we were doing this – well he doesn’t do it the way that I do – but we were doing it more or less together and we both realized we need at least three different dishes throughout the week to not feel like, “oh my gosh! I don’t want to have the same thing I had for lunch. Let’s just order out.” That’s just an example of what works for us.

But, during this Plateau Phase, it’s the persisting and persevering that really ends up being supported at this time. So you’re physiologically primed for this and that’s when you can sort of put one foot in front of the other and make positive changes in that direction. When you do it that way and you give yourself time to troubleshoot, then you never get too that point where you do great with a diet for a month, and then you finally just lose it and you say, “I don’t even care! That’s it! I’m sick of spending six hours in the kitchen every Sunday. It’s not sustainable for me.” And, “screw this I’m going back to ordering out.” Right? If you catch those kinds of things early and address them, and let’s say you’re diet looks less than perfect, then you say, “I can’t sustain this, but what I can do is replace one of these meals.” Let’s say you go to a restaurant that you feel like has really healthy food, or you get deli, or something like that where you have help with preparing your food, then usually if you’re catching it early and doing that, then you don’t have to burn out at the end of the month. You can keep going. And so making some concessions, or not even concessions because they’re not necessarily going to be bad, but making changes early will ensure that you don’t have a full blown malfunction and meltdown later down the road. So that is the point of the Plateau.

The movement is going to be a similar sort of thing. So movement goals for this week; it’s still an action oriented, high vibe sort of time. You’re going to find ways to keep yourself motivated with movement. Whether if you just started a new exercise regimen the last week, you were probably excited, you got some cute clothes, you went to your classes, you got a friend to come join you. And then for this week you’re going to say, “how can I optimize all of these things.” So maybe you make a new friend at yoga class that you are going to also meet so you have multiple accountability partners. Maybe you say, “Okay, it’s not really working for me to work out Mondays cause that’s the day I work late, but how about I do Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and then some sort of lower activity on Sundays,” to set yourself up. Whatever it is. I’m just making these up off the top of my head. But they are largely driven by things I’ve had to figure out for myself as well.

So my movement goals. You want to keep pushing yourself, but you want to be realistic about how you are doing that. When I focus on the Plateau, my thing is usually during the Plateau Phase starting to go up on the weights. In contrast to the Rise where I do weights and dynamic movements, I shift the focus a little bit in the Plateau Phase where I end up doing more weights and less dynamic movements a little bit more. I certainly follow the up and down where each phase is either building up or is simmering down. And so it’s always a fluid, circular, rise and fall that happens every predictable cycle. But, my Plateau goals are always built upon the things that I consciously chose to implement during the Rise. While I may be anticipating that I am a little bit on the downsloping side, I still want to continue the things that I’m doing and begin to either have more of them in my life, or figure out a way to do it better. So not necessarily more quantity, but better quality. So that’s going to be your movement for that.

Let’s go to rituals.

I love rituals. I feel like rituals have added such a fun, interesting, and educational layer to my life where I used to not have a whole lot of rituals. You know I used to have my bedtime ritual. But I like the idea now that you create a display for yourself and participate in the ritual. That is, when you use the word ritual it keynotes a certain amount of importance and reverence that you’re giving to the activity. So you could have a dishwashing ritual, right? You wash your dishes very mindfully, you say your affirmations, you take deep breaths. You could turn any activity into a ritual and it serves a similar purpose. But, I think there is also a special beauty to turning, or making something a ritual when it’s already something special. So just like last week when you took your ritual feminine bath, you can take a bath any day, but it takes a special amount of foresight and insight and dedication to make it a ritual bath. Because you have to consciously – you’re not just grabbing items and throwing them in your bath or throwing them around you – you’re consciously choosing the things that you feel nourished and supported by. And that’s why I end up loving rituals so much. These rituals, please know that they are suggestions. You can make a ritual of whatever it is that you want, and whatever serves you best.

But, the ritual this week is going to be so fun. And it’s actually going to be about releasing something toxic in your life. So far in the Rise and Plateau we really talked about more building and heading in a new direction. But we also want to be aware, just like we did in the release phase – and we’ll do the same thing in the Pause Phase – where you have to make space for the things in the areas of your life for the new things to be able to come back in. And that is an ongoing thing. You don’t necessarily, you’re not always releasing something bad. But you could just be releasing something that has outstayed its welcome. So it might have served you at some point, but it no longer does.

Even though I’m saying release something toxic, the reason I said that is because so many of us have something toxic to release. Whether that’s a situation that we’re holding on that we haven’t forgiven. Whether that’s a person we keep allowing back into our life when we know they don’t serve us. Whether that’s staying in a toxic environment that you know isn’t good but you are scared to make the change. All of those things fall into that category. But it doesn’t have to be bad. You could just say, “yeah I used to hang out with this person all the time, and they are really important to me, but you know, right now we’ve really grown in different directions. And me hanging out with that person doesn’t necessarily bring me joy. It doesn’t necessarily make my life better. And for that reason I’m going to begin to distance myself from this situation.” And it doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It doesn’t have to be a sad thing. But you just have to realize that you can’t expect all the beautiful things that you want to come in to come in when you are just so busy and so full of all the other stuff that may or may not be serving you. So this is a conscious ritual to release something that no longer serves you in your life.

And the reason I didn’t put this in the Release category is because this is still, you’re not just thinking about this, you’re not just meditating on this idea. What we’re actually going to turn this ritual into an action oriented ritual. So you are going to sit down with a piece of paper and you are going to describe this thing that you are letting go. So whether that’s a relationship in your life, a belief like, “I’m not a healthy person,” or a situation – a trauma in the past. You are going to write out everything you possibly feel. Be as honest as you possibly can. You could say, “I hate myself for having done this.” I say, “I hate myself for allowing that person back into my life.” You can write down whatever you want. You can write down all the things you are too scared to admit to yourself. And just give yourself an outlet. Because if you don’t, their going to fester in the background and continually sort of sabotage you in your efforts. What we want to do is just basically word vomit all over that page with every belief and feeling that you have about this subject so that you can really organically pour it onto the page.

And so you’re releasing it from your constant thinking. It’s sort of like having apps open on your phone in the background that you’re not really using. Their still open and their still eating up your battery, but their not an app that you are actually using. So that’s what happens with old beliefs like, “I just hate that I did that.” “I hate that I cheated.” “I hate that I got divorced.” “I hate that I can’t have babies.” “I hate that…” All these things are going to weigh you down in the long run. So you are going to pour yourself into this. You can cry. You can yell. You can do whatever you want. But at the end of the day, you want to be really authentic in getting everything out that has to do with this. So you can write as much as you want. And then you are going to destroy this paper. And by destroy I mean really really make sure it never exist in the light of day ever again. When I did this the first time I wrote everything out. I had pages and pages. And then I took markers and I just scribbled all over it. And then I actually crumpled it up and drowned it. I just imagined all of those feeling and all of those insecurities, so I just put it on there. And then after that when it was all soggy I just ripped it up to shreds and it was gone.

Now it’s not so say that you do that once and it will never be a problem again because we all have the toxic person in our life that sticks around. But, after having done that, you have now identified and brought up from your subconscious to your conscious mind the feelings and everything that surrounds it. And now your mind is going to be primed for recognizing that situation path. So where you might have been suppressing or repressing these things, you will now say, “ah! There it is.” Next time, “that person, what they said right there is the trigger for me. That right there does not work.” So you are identifying it. And then next time you say, “I have let this go.” And you imagine that paper burning, or you’re drowning, or scribbling all over it. And you’re going to say, “I consciously choose to not engage in this.” And then – this is the hard part – you’re going to act as if it has left you.

Now, emotions stick around. So it’s not like you do it once and it overcomes 18 years of being upset at your mother. But, next time you are upset you’re saying, “for my own benefit, I’ve burned that.” “For my own benefit as a human, I’ve burned that toxic relationship from festering inside me.” Whether or not you can’t get rid of your mother, or whatever it is, it’s still brings it a different weight to say, “I did something consciously for this. And now I’m choosing to let it go.” And that becomes really really helpful. And once you get into that habit, you actually get better and better and better at doing this. Okay? Alright.

That is actually going to be our mental work. Just because that one is actually pretty hefty on the emotions, and it sometimes can take a while to do because there are things we’ve been carrying for a really long time. So I’m not going to give you a separate journaling, kind of, mental mindset exercise or homework at this time. But you can include that as part of your ritual. Make sure to make your ritual amazing for you. Whether you drink wine out of a fancy goblet, or you have a carry out pizza and you eat it out of a paper bag. I don’t care what it is, just make it an honest to God ritual where you honor you space, time, and your own efforts to make your life better.

Alright Ladies, you’re killin’ it. I love you guys so much for coming by to hang out and listen to this. If you have question, make sure to email us. That’s support@zestyginger.com. And definitely come hang out with us over on Instagram. We do a lot of lives, and a lot of freebies, and give a lot of information away. So we will see you there. And come introduce yourselves so know who you are and we will hang. Alright guys, I’ll see you later.

Sound Bites

3:20-3:51

So this is not doing everything at once. What you’re doing is last phase you had great energy levels, great motivation, and you did some of that hardest work to get started. Whatever it is, you finally got going. And the momentum has happened. This Plateau Phase you’re really going to ride that momentum out and begin to establish these things as not just a flash in the pan for you, but as a change you are consciously making that will keep going and that will have staying power.

15:02-15:29

So far in the Rise and Plateau we really talked about more building and heading in a new direction. But we also want to be aware, just like we did in the release phase – and we’ll do the same thing in the Pause Phase – where you have to make space for the things in the areas of your life for the new things to be able to come back in. And that is an ongoing thing.

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